Loading ...If there could be a collective curse on one tag for web design, the nofollow tag would be in big trouble. That tag has crushed the hopes of budding SEO experts and hopeful site owners alike across the years, as major sites have used it to block outbound link juice. However, information leaked from the search engines recently showed how the nofollow tag has been of some benefit to those involved in search engine optimisation.
The nofollow tag has been a blight on plenty of link building plans. With disturbing regularity, a large site which has appeared to be a wonderful resource of free links has crushed the hopes of thousands by applying nofollows unilaterally on outbound links. The tags inform the search engines not to bother following the links through to the site in question, causing a fair bit of upset to the linked site’s link building plans.
Nofollows: the search engines aren’t stupid
When the search engines assess the value of links, they look at how many links a site is giving. A site that provides a large number of links is looked at very carefully. Sometimes, sites that are an obvious links resource for others are taken down a peg or two in the rankings.
This all comes from the search engines’ knowledge that links are a valuable resource. The search engines value natural or natural-seeming links above all others. Not only are they on the lookout for obviously dubious links, such as those resulting from completely unconnected sites as link farms, but they don’t approve of paid links either. A site that is selling its links is likely to be taken down sooner or later.
A site that nofollows most of its links, on the other hand, is obviously careful of the links it offers. Instead of allowing unedited links to be posted unguarded on things like its comments sections, the site tries to put a protective barrier in place. This means it goes up in the search engines’ estimation, conversely making its links more valuable.
How is this a good thing?
No matter what you do, if you’ve posted a link on a site and that site places a ‘nofollow’ tag on your link, it’s not good news for your link profile. There’s nothing you can do about it, short of contacting the owner of the site and begging them to undo it. The good things that nofollows indicate for search engine optimization are a little more roundabout than that.
The use of nofollows as a sign of site quality is possibly why sites like Twitter and Wikipedia have placed tags on outbound links. This isn’t much help for you as a site owner, particularly with these huge sites, but it is a possible help with smaller sites, if you can convince them to give you an open, non-nofollowed link.
Nofollows are undoubtedly annoying, but they are also a sign of quality. Consider approaching nofollowing sites carefully for your link plan, and talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about your link building campaign.
Related posts:
- Rel=NoFollow in the world of SEO
- Are paid links bad?
- Set Your Link Profile On A Solid Foundation
- Shop for your links
- Can outbound linking hurt your search engine rankings?
Tags: link, link farms, Nofollow, Search Engine Optimisation, SEO
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